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FBS Independents football schedule grid 2026
Notre Dame and UConn play in no conference, so this is their 2026 seasons side by side rather than a table of teams meeting one another. Columns are days. An @ means an away game, and kick-off times are in your own timezone rather than US Eastern time.
| Team | September 2026 | October 2026 | November 2026 | GP | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 2026-09-05 | 6 2026-09-06 | 7 2026-09-07 | 8 2026-09-08 | 9 2026-09-09 | 10 2026-09-10 | 11 2026-09-11 | 12 2026-09-12 | 13 2026-09-13 | 14 2026-09-14 | 15 2026-09-15 | 16 2026-09-16 | 17 2026-09-17 | 18 2026-09-18 | 19 2026-09-19 | 20 2026-09-20 | 21 2026-09-21 | 22 2026-09-22 | 23 2026-09-23 | 24 2026-09-24 | 25 2026-09-25 | 26 2026-09-26 | 27 2026-09-27 | 28 2026-09-28 | 29 2026-09-29 | 30 2026-09-30 | 1 2026-10-01 | 2 2026-10-02 | 3 2026-10-03 | 4 2026-10-04 | 5 2026-10-05 | 6 2026-10-06 | 7 2026-10-07 | 8 2026-10-08 | 9 2026-10-09 | 10 2026-10-10 | 11 2026-10-11 | 12 2026-10-12 | 13 2026-10-13 | 14 2026-10-14 | 15 2026-10-15 | 16 2026-10-16 | 17 2026-10-17 | 18 2026-10-18 | 19 2026-10-19 | 20 2026-10-20 | 21 2026-10-21 | 22 2026-10-22 | 23 2026-10-23 | 24 2026-10-24 | 25 2026-10-25 | 26 2026-10-26 | 27 2026-10-27 | 28 2026-10-28 | 29 2026-10-29 | 30 2026-10-30 | 31 2026-10-31 | 1 2026-11-01 | 2 2026-11-02 | 3 2026-11-03 | 4 2026-11-04 | 5 2026-11-05 | 6 2026-11-06 | 7 2026-11-07 | 8 2026-11-08 | 9 2026-11-09 | 10 2026-11-10 | 11 2026-11-11 | 12 2026-11-12 | 13 2026-11-13 | 14 2026-11-14 | 15 2026-11-15 | 16 2026-11-16 | 17 2026-11-17 | 18 2026-11-18 | 19 2026-11-19 | 20 2026-11-20 | 21 2026-11-21 | 22 2026-11-22 | 23 2026-11-23 | 24 2026-11-24 | 25 2026-11-25 | 26 2026-11-26 | 27 2026-11-27 | 28 2026-11-28 | ||
| ND Notre Dame | WIS | RICE | MSU | @PUR ? | @UNC ? | STAN | @BYU ? | @NAVY | MIA | BC | SMU | @SYR ? | 12 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| CONN UConn | LAF | MD | @USM | @M-OH ? | SYR | @TEM ? | MASS | @AF | UNC | JMU | ODU | @WYO ? | 12 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
home @ away no games league-wide
The 2026 FBS Independents season at a glance
The 2026 regular season runs from Sep 5 to Nov 28: 24 games played by Notre Dame and UConn, 12 each. Saturday carries 22 of them; the rest are spread across the days either side, which is why the grid is built from days rather than weeks — a Thursday night game and a Saturday afternoon game are two days apart, and a week column would say only that they happened in the same week.
Because a team plays about once a week, most of this grid is white space: games fall on 14 of the season's 85 days, leaving 71 with no game at all. That is the shape of a college football season rather than a fault in it.
Every opponent is from another conference
An independent belongs to no conference, so it has no conference schedule: all 24 of these games are against teams from elsewhere in FBS or from FCS. That also means the two rows here never meet — Notre Dame and UConn do not play each other in 2026 — so read this as two seasons on one calendar rather than as a comparison of who plays whom.
Every cell here carries a dotted underline to say the opponent has no row in this table. A team's own page shows its full season with every opponent named.
Kick-off times that are not fixed yet
7 of the 24 games on this page have a date but no confirmed kick-off time. That is not missing data: college football's kick-off times are chosen by the television networks a week or two ahead, so a game on the schedule today may end up at noon or under the lights, and occasionally moves off Saturday altogether. Those games carry a ? and no clock time. A placeholder you could not tell from a real time would be worse than none, so the page prints none.
Home, away and results
A cell names the opponent. Home and away are distinguished by colour and, because colour alone excludes colour-blind readers, by an @ before away opponents. Days a team does not play are left blank. Once a game has been played its final score replaces the matchup, which is what makes the page worth coming back to during a season. The GP column counts games in the range you are looking at.
Kick-off times outside the United States
College football is published in US Eastern time, and most other schedule sites leave you to convert it yourself. A Saturday-night game in the United States kicks off in the small hours of Sunday morning in Europe, and this page shows it in your own timezone, detected automatically and overridable in the “Times in” control. Because a grid column is the league's own calendar date, a converted time can belong to the following day where you are, and those carry a +1. 2 of this season's games are at a neutral site rather than either team's own stadium; those show no stadium clock, because a neutral venue's timezone is not the home team's. Tapping a game shows the full local date, the stadium, and the kick-off in the stadium's own clock.
Frequently asked questions
How many games are in the 2026 FBS Independents season?
24 games, from Sep 5 to Nov 28. Each team plays 12 games. Every one is against a team from another conference: the independents belong to none, so they have no conference schedule at all.
Why does no opponent have a row in the table?
Because an independent has no conference, so every opponent comes from one. Notre Dame and UConn are not in any conference and do not play each other, so this page is their two schedules side by side rather than a table of teams playing one another. Every opponent here belongs to another conference or to FCS, and each is marked with a dotted underline; most have a page of their own on this site, linked from the game details.
Why is the kick-off time missing for some games?
Because it has not been decided yet. Television picks the kick-off times for college football a week or two ahead, so a game published today may be at noon or in the evening — and occasionally moves from Saturday to Friday. 7 of the 24 games on this page have a date but no confirmed time, and they are marked with a "?" rather than given a made-up one. A placeholder time you could not tell from a real one would be worse than none.
Why is there no grid of all FBS teams together?
Because 138 rows is not readable, on a phone or anywhere else. FBS is followed by conference, and a conference is a dozen or so teams, which fits one screen. Every conference has its own grid on this site, and the independents — who are in none — have this one, and a team's own page shows its full season including the games against other conferences.
Why are so many columns empty?
Because a team plays once a week. The season covers 85 days and games fall on 14 of them, so 71 days carry no game at all. Saturday is the main matchday, with 22 of the 24 games. The empty columns are the shape of the season rather than a fault in it, and keeping them means every row runs left to right in true date order.
How do I see FBS Independents kick-off times in my own timezone?
They are already converted. The page detects your timezone and shows every confirmed kick-off in it, and the "Times in" control lets you pick another. College football is published in US Eastern time, so a Saturday-night game there starts in the small hours of Sunday across Europe — a game that crosses midnight carries a +1 mark so it cannot be mistaken for the same evening.
Does this include bowl games and the College Football Playoff?
No. This grid is the regular season, the same as every other grid on this site. Conference championship games, bowls and the College Football Playoff are postseason: they are decided round by round as the season ends, so a grid of them would be mostly empty columns that change shape every week.
How do I read the grid?
Rows are FBS Independents teams, alphabetical. Columns are single days, on a phone as well as a desktop — the grid scrolls sideways. A cell shows the opponent; an @ and a separate colour mark an away game, a dotted underline marks an opponent with no row here, and the final score replaces the matchup once a game has been played. The GP column counts games in view. Tap any game for its kick-off time and stadium.
Where does this schedule come from?
From CollegeFootballData.com, fetched once a night and rendered as static pages. Nothing is fetched while you read the page, so it loads at the same speed whatever is happening upstream.